RIVERSIDE – Researchers led by a UC Riverside scientist have successfully sequenced the genome of the mosquito that carries the West Nile virus potentially laying the groundwork for ending the potentially lethal threat to humans.

Peter Arensburger, the scientist who led the research in sequencing the genome of culex quinquefasciatus, also known as the southern house mosquito, which also carries St. Louis encephalitis, lymphatic filariasis and other diseases, took part in sequencing the genomes of the two other major disease carrying mosquitoes.

The research is being published in today’s issue of the journal Science.

In addition to leading the work on culex, Arensburger also participated in the sequencing of Anopheles gambiae, which transmits malaria, in 2002 and Aedes aegypti, which transmits yellow fever and dengue, in 2007. Work on sequencing Culex began in 2004, according to a university press release.

“We can now compare and contrast all three mosquito genomes, and identify not only their common genes but also what is unique to each mosquito,” said Arensburger, an assistant research entomologist in UCR’s Center for Disease Vector Research and the Department of Entomology. “Moreover, now that we have sequenced the Culex genome, we can begin to identify which mosquito genes get turned on or turned off in response to infection – knowledge that is critical to developing strategies for preventing the transmission of West Nile virus and other disease vectors.”

Besides Arensburger, the UCR team includes Peter Atkinson, the director of the Center for Disease Vector Research and a professor of entomology, and Alexander Raikhel, a distinguished professor of entomology.

A number of deaths have been attributed to West Nile in Southern California and San Bernardino County since it first arrived in the United States in 1999. Since then it has been found in all 48 contiguous states.

The first case recorded in this county was a 40-year-old Fontana woman, who was stricken in 2004.

Arensburger said scientists at UCR are working on genetically engineering a Culex mosquito that would be identical in every way except that it could not pass on the virus. Eventually it would be expected to breed the carrier out of existence.